If you mean a replacement slide-in US standard module - I fear that your chances are slim. I don’t know of a standard that applies to such plates. As it came with a, presumably, external disc drive - asking that manufacturer or its US agent/distributor for help might get something. Even a free replacement power supply. Worth asking, surely?
I don’t recommend using an inline adapter - unless used vertically, the leverage would be too great, unless you added a third leg… You might look for a right angle adapter - that’s the norm in the UK. They can work out well.
Otherwise, you could get an EU socket strip, replacing the plug on the end of its cable with a US one (if it doesn’t actually come with a US plug already).
The standard countryside yokel reply when asked for directions applies, " Arrh, If you need to get to there, I wouldn't be starting from here".
For battery powered LED lighting - you shouldn't be using 12v LED strips. You should be using bare LEDs and a constant current supply. Converting cell voltage to 12v, only to use (probably) resistors to limit LED current isn't the way to go.
You will lose far more, efficiency wise, starting from there, than you are worrying about losing in the series or parallel considerations.
But then, you'd design the required power source and then the charger associated with it - not start with a charger, which then constrains your battery pack topology.
On a KISS basis - I tend to just use a bimetallic switch or omit the temperature control and just run the fan from power up. It’s possible for a processor to suffer some non-handled exception where it no longer executes the temperature management routine.
I’d suggest peeling off just one strand of the wire and use that. You will need to insulate the wire from the nail - Wrapping paper around the nail will do. You will need to insulate the wire from itself, so that adjacent turns don’t touch. You can just space the turns out along the paper sleeve. That should do the trick. If you have twine, you can wind that on with the copper wire and use the twine to keep the turns from touching each other.
Oh to straighten copper wire, if you don’t know this trick - hold your nail in a vice and wrap a single turn of copper wire around it. If you then pull on one end of the wire, keeping a little tension on the other - with a bit of practice it will give you a very straight end result, as the wire pulls away from the nail.
Usual situation - if I needed to interface to 5 cameras I wouldn’t start with ones that needed: “The DVP physical interface consists of a single, 100-conductor, 110-ohm cable organized. as 45 differential signal pairs. These signal pairs consist of the following: • 36 RGB data pairs. • 2 clock pairs.” So, you would be interfacing to 5 x 45 differential pairs. I’d be looking for camera modules with serial output…
Or, as you suggest, give each camera something that can convert that lot into a single serial data stream. Or even process it down to a QR code and just send that. Or even do what-ever it is that you want to do with that code, once received.
That is pretty much exactly a conventional momentary switch. It just happens to be packaged for use controlling something a little different.
It should be fine for your application.
One thing to note - the contacts will probably "bounce" as the switch is closed. Produce a string of momentary connections and disconnections for, oh, say the first few thousandths of a second. That's perfectly normal for a mechanical switch.
That won't matter in its intended application. But if you are using it with electronics, say counting the number of times the switch is operated - the results can be unexpected.
You can look up "debounce" to see how this can be worked-around.
I suggest that you give details of the iron (and tip) and solder that you are using and a close up photo of the wires that are being problematic.
The iron temperature control may be faulty and the iron just not getting to soldering temperatures. Or you may have it set too low.
The thermal mass of typical USB wires is so low that, if the solder actually melts freely at the tip end when not soldering anything, it should do so when soldering these wires.
The standard way of looking at this is to consider a capacitor-resistor series combination going to ground. Connect a 10v (wrt ground) supply to the capacitor and the voltage across the resistor rises to +10v, then decays. Now connect that capacitor to ground and that same resistor gets -10v across it, which then decays. Whatever is connected to the capacitor “top” terminal has to be able to sink current as well as source it.
That’s what generators in simulators do - they have zero internal impedance (usually). They sink currents as well as source them.
It’s usually a good idea to look at what’s normally connected, when breaking a circuit, and replicate that. Which I seem to remember is a 10k resistor with a parallel capacitor (being too lazy to go back and look again). You could try the same combination, in place of the added input cable, on the lines that you plan to use and see if it whines. If not, add the cable(s) and try again. That may stop it happening on all channels.
There are two muting methods - open circuit the input (via a switch or a gate) - in which case there will probably still be some signal transfer through capacitive coupling - especially if the amp side of the open circuit is high gain. Or short the signal path to ground - and that short will have some impedance and thus the signal is only attenuated and not removed all together.
Turning the amp gain to far higher than it ever would be in practice is hardly a fair test. There aren’t many amps that will be noise free under those conditions - and, in this case, there will be a signal to amplify, albeit highly attenuated.
It’s good to be cautious - cascade failure can be waiting to bite. Never direct connect unless unavoidable - add a series capacitor, if you can. Yes, not usually a good idea to provide a dc path unless essential and, even then, current limit it if possible.
What worked for me, that may not do so for anyone else - is to take an existing circuit (usually a reference one provided by a manufacturer) and build that. Get that working (sometimes, it hasn’t worked- the manufacturer’s technical support department has often been very helpful, especially when their reference design has a design fault or has been misprinted - after doing that, they used to send me unmarked, pre-production chips/etc to play with and provide feedback).
Then modified that design, to test my understanding. Tried different board layouts, guard rings, etc and documented the effect. When it didn’t work as expected - took that back to their tech support to see if we could work out why.
So, for me, taking something that works and keep modifying it, just a little.
Just a word of caution - education is a process of diminishing deception. Books provide a simplified version of real World electronics. Universities and colleges put a lot of effort into designing lab practicals that will actually work and give the predictable results that students expect.
So the normal learning process when it comes to op amps - is to read and understand the theory. Then complete those crafted lab practical exercises - having been introduced to the added complication of systemic and random errors. Then do your own thing, when all the remaining Real Life complications hit you like a brick.
So, if you can find a course in analogue electronics, even a distance learning one, you might find the steps are smaller and more easy to assimilate.
DuPont connectors equates to logic level signals. There may even be a 3.3 v <>5v link selector on the adapter.
Whereas DB9 equates to "RS232" level signals. Generally, at least the capability to accept those voltage levels, even if not necessarily producing them.
My first step tends to be to connect tx to rx and see if characters typed in a terminal/emulator get echoed.
An RS232 breakout box is pretty much a given necessity, when it comes to sorting out what's happening on all those pins and sorting out what to connect to what.
Wear trainers not sling backs. Molten solder and your tootsie don't go well together.
I turn the printed circuit board component side down and wave a hot air gun over the flip side, whilst tapping the board against the edge of work bench. The result is usually a cascade of components (and blobs of molten solder).
Very therapeutic. When I'm stuck trying to work out how to do something, when everything I have tried has failed miserably, I deconstruct something electronic. No, I keep well away from psychiatrists.
You (I anticipate) won't be doing this 9 hours a day, 7 days a week - most of the nasties are long term exposure ones, so a one-off should be fine. If anything ever irritates your eyes or throat, get out of there and ventilate the place.
I think that it is the same stuff, just will propellant added in the aerosol. A small squeezy bottle with a needle is better if you have live stuff nearby - but you can always fill one from an aerosol